


The Beginning of Infinity

by CrashDevil (cjdevlin19)



Series: Red Queen Chronicles [7]
Category: Avengers infinity war - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-17 04:37:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14825381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cjdevlin19/pseuds/CrashDevil
Summary: Cassie Campbell's trying to help save the world from Thanos, while dealing with the regrettable decisions she made on Asgard and trying to keep her pregnancy a secret until it's confirmed by science instead of Heimdall's magic.~~~~~"Who could find Vision, then?" Strange asked as Tony paced away from the group."Probably Steve Rogers. Maybe. But..." He sighed, deeply, and Cassie looked down."Call him." Bruce demanded."It's not that easy." Tony said, turning to the other scientist. "God, we haven't caught up in a spell, have we? I take it Cassie hasn't explained-""There wasn't time for that, Tony." Cassie whispered."The Avengers broke up. We're toast.""Broke up? Like a band, like-like the Beatles?" Bruce asked."Cap and I fell out hard. We're not on speaking terms. Normally, I'd send the blond girl as liaison, but I have a feeling that he's not gonna wanna hear from her, either. Sorry, kid, I watched the video."Cassie looked down as Bruce stepped up to Tony. "Tony, listen to me. Thor's gone, Thanos is coming, it doesn't matter who you're talking to or not."





	1. Doughnuts

Cassie looked up from the hole in the floor, pain going through her worse than when she fell off of the Bifrost onto Sakaar. Hulk was slowly deflating beside her as two faces appeared above them. "Thanos is coming. He's coming." Banner-Hulk groaned out as Cassie tried to sit up. 

"Who?" Dr. Strange asked.

"Thanos. He's..." She moaned as she finally sat up all of the way and began to try to stand. Several orange planes of mystical energy appeared, which she used to climb out. 

Stephen Strange looked down at her as she brushed dust and debris off of her clothes. "What happened to you? The last time I saw you, you were in Norway." 

She took a deep breath. "Found Odin. He died, releasing Hela the goddess of Death, who took over Asgard and plotted to take over the universe so we had to set a fire demon named Surtur loose to destroy Asgard and Hela with it while the rest of us escaped on a giant spaceship which was quickly attacked by an even gianter spaceship. A huge purple alien named Thanos laid waste to... everything." She blinked several times to try to combat her tears. "He killed our people. Half of what was left of Asgard, they're- I'm pretty sure Thor and Loki are dead by now, too. He's trying to get all of the Infinity Stones." 

She reached down and helped Bruce out of the hole, trying to ignore the tears rolling down her cheeks. "You said Infinity Stones?" Strange asked as Cassie wrapped Bruce's arm around her neck.

"Yes. The Infinity Stones. Mind, Power, Reality, Space, Soul, Time. Six powerful stones old as the universe." 

"We know what the Infinity Stones are." The Asian man said.

"Someone's trying to get all six?" Strange asked, conjuring up clothes and handing them to Bruce.

"Yes. Yes, Thanos is trying to get all six stones and if he does, he will destroy the universe as we know it." She wiped at her face as Bruce quickly dressed.

"We need Tony." Bruce said, patting Cassie's shoulder.

"I'll get him." Stephen Strange said, opening a portal in front of them and walking through. "Mr. Stark? I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me. Oh, uh, congratulations on the wedding, by the way."

Cassie's heart soared a bit to hear Tony's voice. "I'm sorry. You givin' out tickets to somethin'?" 

"We need your help. Look, it's not overselling it to say that the fate of the  _universe_  is at stake."

"And who's 'we'?" Tony asked.

She and Bruce walked out of the portal on either side of Strange, stepping forward with matching looks of worry and devastation on their faces. "Hey, Tony." Bruce said.

"Hey, Boss." 

"Bruce. Cassie?" Tony's eyes darted between them, a look of almost confused sadness on his face.

"Pepper." Bruce stepped toward Tony.

"Hi." Pepper said, with her own worry.

"Are you okay?" Tony asked, right before Bruce hugged him. Tony looked over Bruce's shoulder at Cassie. "Shit went pear-shaped?"

"Worse than-" Her throat closed up around the words as she thought about Thor and Loki and the damage to her that might've cost her the baby she hadn't really wanted back on Asgard. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "We've got a lot to cover, Boss, so... come on." 

Tony nodded, turning to Pepper as Bruce pulled away. "I've gotta deal with this, Pep. Why don't you head home, hit the panic room, I'll call you when it's safe?"

"Be careful, Tony." Pepper said. She kissed his cheek, then turned to run away.

Tony moved to wrap his arm around Cassie as they walked through the portal into the Sanctum Sanctorum. "Are you okay?"

"No." She whispered back, honestly. "I don't know what... There's this guy, Thanos... He's coming for the Stones."

"Sit down. We'll explain everything from the beginning." Strange ordered, closing the portal behind them. Tony pulled Cassie to sit next to him on a long sofa. She didn't resist it, at all. She took what comfort she could from being back on Earth, back with Tony. It wasn't okay, but things were better now that she was in Tony's arms.

"At the dawn of the universe, there was nothing and then..." Wong started. A flash of light lit the room. "Boom, the Big Bang sends six elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each controlled one essential aspect of existence."

"Space. Reality. Power. Soul. Mind. And Time." Strange turned to them, doing several hand motions which opened the eye of the necklace he wore. It glowed a brilliant green. 

"Tell me his name again." Tony demanded, moving to stand. Cassie immediately lamented the loss of his support and stood with him.

"Thanos." Bruce almost grimaced as he said the name, walking toward Tony. "He's a plague, Tony. He invades planets, he takes what he wants and wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York, that's him."

"This is it." Tony nodded, like he was psyching himself up. "What's our timeline?"

"No telling. He has the Power and Space Stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six stones, Tony-" Bruce said.

"He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of." Strange finished as Tony started stretching himself on a large ancient urn.

"Did you seriously just say 'hitherto undreamt of'?" Tony asked.

"Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?" Strange responded, before his cape slapped Tony's arm.

Tony turned to him, indignantly. "I'm... going to allow that." He looked around before settling on the necklace. "If Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down a garbage disposal?"

"No can do." Strange said.

"We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives." Wong said.

"And I swore off dairy, but then Ben & Jerry's named a flavor after me, so..."

"Stark Raving Hazelnut." Strange said.

"It's not bad." Tony defended.

"Hmm, a bit chalky." Strange responded.

"A Hunk-a Hulk-a Burning Fudge is our favorite." Wong said.

"That's a thing?" Bruce asked.

"Whatever, the point is things change." Tony said.

"Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change and this stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos." Strange said.

"And also, conversely, it may also be his best chance against us."

"Only if we don't do our jobs."

"What is your job, exactly, besides making balloon animals?"

"Protecting your reality, douche-bag."

"Wow, this is  _exactly_  like I thought an interaction between Doctor Strange and Tony Stark would go." Cassie interjected.

Stephen Strange turned her, smiling slightly. "A lot like  _our_  first interaction went."

"Well, you get strong personalities in a room together and they generally either fight or fuck." Cassie said.

"Okay, guys, can we table this discussion right now? The fact is that we have this stone. We know where  _it_  is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone and we have to find him, now." Bruce said, gesturing out the door.

"Yeah, that's the... thing." Tony said, evasively.

"What do you mean?" Cassie asked.

"Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder. He's offline."

"What?!" Bruce exclaimed. "Tony, you lost another superbot?"

"I didn't lose him, and he's more than that. He's evolving." 

"Who  _could_  find Vision, then?" Strange asked as Tony paced away from the group.

"Probably Steve Rogers. Maybe. But..." He sighed, deeply, and Cassie looked down. 

"Call him." Bruce demanded.

"It's not that easy." Tony said, turning to the other scientist. "God, we haven't caught up in a spell, have we? I take it Cassie hasn't explained-"

"There wasn't time for that, Tony." Cassie whispered.

"The Avengers broke up. We're toast."

"Broke up? Like a band, like-like the Beatles?" Bruce asked.

"Cap and I fell out hard. We're not on speaking terms. Normally, I'd send the blond girl as liaison, but I have a feeling that he's not gonna wanna hear from her, either. Sorry, kid, I watched the video."

Cassie looked down as Bruce stepped up to Tony. "Tony, listen to me. Thor's gone, Thanos is coming, it doesn't matter who you're talking to or not."

Tony turned away, pulling a cheap flip-phone out of his pocket and opening it. They could all see the conflict on his face as he looked down at the screen. A strong current of air went through the building, causing things to shake and move around them. "Say, Doc, you wouldn't happen to be moving your hair right now, would you?"

"Not at the moment, no." 

The group looked up through the hole in the roof and saw a giant circular ship. "Shit." Cassie said, walking out of the Sanctum. 

It was like being caught in the path of a jet engine. The circular ship caused panic and confusion, crashing cars and people running in fear. Cassie followed Tony down the block as he put on a pair of glasses and talked to F.R.I.D.A.Y. Doctor Strange used the Time Stone to freeze the debris, the ship and the people. She took a deep breath as two of the Black Order teleported down to the street below the ship. She thought she'd heard them called Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian back on the  _Statesman_. Her hands clenched into fists as she faced the Children of Thanos with the wizards and Tony by her side. 

"Hear me and rejoice. You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos. Be thankful that your meaningless lives are now contributing to the balance-"

"I'm sorry, but Earth is closed today!" Tony shouted. "You better pack it up and get out of here."

"Stonekeeper, does this chattering animal speak for you?" The skinny alien asked.

"Certainly not, I speak for myself." Strange stomped forward, doing hand movements that called forth the orange mystical energy around his arms. "You're trespassing in this city and on this planet." Wong followed his example.

"Means 'Get lost', Squidward!" Tony yelled.

"Maybe you should go back to the Sanctum, Cassie." Bruce suggested, quietly. 

"What? No." She responded. "Just because Loki's gone, doesn't mean you need to pick up his slack on worrying about me."

"You don't even have a weapon. You're gonna go against those things unarmed? In your condition?"

"I always forget how Bruce doesn't know fighting. Look around. The best martial weapon is the one you can get to quickest. On the street, within five feet of us, I see a dozen items I can use as batons, 5 that I can break into daggers and two that I could turn into zipguns if I had more than a few minutes to work. I'm fine. And we're not talking about my  _condition."_  She warned.

"Fine." 

"Banner, you wanna piece?" Tony asked as the larger alien stomped forward, a Swiss Army hammer in his hands. 

"Hm, no, not really, but when do I ever get what I want?" Bruce responded.

"That's right." Tony said, as Cassie bent down and grabbed a large piece of metal that had blown down the street. "Boy, been a while. Good to have you, buddy."

"Shhh, I need to concentrate here for a second." Bruce said, his voice deep but not quite the Hulk, his neck green but not turning into the Hulk. "Come on, come on, man."

"Where's your guy?" Tony asked as Hulk failed to show himself.

"I dunno. We've sort of been having a thing." Bruce answered.

"This is no time for a thing. That's a thing, right there. Let's go." Bruce groaned and tried again, but Hulk still wouldn't show. "Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards." 

"I'm sorry, Tony. I can't, or he won't." Bruce whispered.

"It's okay. Stand down. Keep an eye on him. Thank you." Tony instructed Wong, who stepped in front of him.

"I've got him."

Tony stepped to the front of the group as Cull Obsidian started to run at them and tapped the arc reactor in his chest. Nanotech crawled across his body and he was quickly suited up. The large alien attacked, but a shield appeared and Tony fought it back, tossing it back toward Ebony Maw with a huge repulsor blast. Ebony Maw just threw his brother to the side without flinching.

"Where'd that come from?" Bruce demanded.

"Obviously nanotech." Cassie answered.

"You like it? A little something I-" Tony started, turning to them before being thrown into the air.

"Fucking telekinetic-" Cassie groaned, jumping out of the way of the trees and debris Ebony Maw sent flying at them.

"Dr. Banner, if the rest of your green friend won't be joining us-" Doctor Strange started, opening a portal and sending Bruce through it before turning to Cassie, who was running down the street toward the alien, metal in hand. 

"You gotta get that stone outta here, now." Tony demanded.

"It stays with me." 

"Exactly. Bye." Tony said, flying at Ebony Maw, who threw him off toward Washington Square Park. 

"I remember you." Maw said, as Cassie swung at him. The alien lifted her with his telekinesis, examining her face. "Princess of Asgard. Your brother, Thor, died while sobbing over the broken body of your husband. You managed to avoid that fate. Not balanced." 

"You're going to pay for this." She couldn't avoid the tears rolling down her cheeks at the mental image Ebony Maw conjured up for her. "All of you. Thanos, all of his children, you're all going to die."

"I've heard you Terrans were a terribly sentimental group."

Cassie kicked at him, missing entirely. "My son is not going to have a father because of you! Because of Thanos! Because you are the most vile-"

"Fortunate for you, princess of Asgard, that I am only here for the Time Stone. You and your son will not perish the same way his father did." He tossed her down Laguardia Place where she bounced off of a stoplight and hit the ground next to Wong.

"Are you okay?" Wong asked.

"Oh, I hate these fuckin'- I'm good." She said, pulling herself up off of the asphalt. Wong opened a portal to the park and they walked through as Stephen's cape sent him flying away from Maw. Bruce called their attention to Tony fighting Cull Obsidian as soon as they made it to the park and Wong opened a portal which sent the alien to a frozen wasteland as he was about to decimate Tony with a leaping assault. It launched itself toward the portal but Wong closed it before it could make it through, chopping its arm off. 

"Wong, you're invited to my wedding." Tony said before taking off after the doughnut-shaped ship, which was rising up into the atmosphere.

"Wait!" Cassie called, but Tony didn't hear her. She immediately regretted not getting comms from him as soon as he walked through the portal. "Fuck!" She ran back to Laguardia Place, Wong and Bruce walking through a portal right before she made it back to where the fight began. She looked up at the ship, an increasingly-smaller dot in the sky now, as Bruce bent down to pick up Tony's flip-phone. "Tony and Stephen are on that ship, along with the Time Stone."

Wong opened a portal to the Sanctum. "Where are you going?" Bruce asked Wong.

"The Time Stone's been taken. The Sanctum remains unguarded. What will you do?" 

"I'm gonna make a call." Bruce gestured with the phone. Wong nodded and closed the portal. Bruce hit the button on the phone and put it to his ear. "Steve? No, it's Bruce. We've got a problem."


	2. Forgiveness

Cassie hot-wired a car and drove out of the city as best she could. The giant space ship had people fleeing so she had to sit on the GWB for far too long, and a trip that usually took an hour by car ended up closer to five. All the while, she was in pain. Her whole body felt like she'd been run over by a tank. Her head was pounding and listening to Bruce on the phone with Steve, trying to explain why they needed to find Vision as soon as possible because a hostile alien force was coming for the Mind Stone, it made her anxious about seeing Steve, working through the issues before they set to work on fighting Thanos.

"You want me to drive?" Bruce asked, looking over at her from the passenger seat of the ancient Chevy she'd stolen. "You look exhausted. You could get some-"

"Last time I fell asleep, Thanos attacked us." She said, biting her thumbnail as her eyes scanned the sky above Palisades Parkway. "And if I die today, it better not be in Jersey."

"You're gonna have to sleep again, eventually. I mean, the baby-"

"The baby's irrelevant." She answered, shortly as she let her foot off the brake to inch forward slowly.

"What? No. The baby's not-"

"The baby's gonna kill me, remember? If Thanos doesn't kill me, little Anthony will. He's half-giant. I'm not built for that. Well... maybe I was, I don't know anymore, but the main bullet point here is Thanos. Me taking care of myself for this baby won't change that Thanos is coming for Vision." She sighed. "Besides, you've never been to the compound. You aren't gonna be able to find it without help."

"I could wake you up when we get close." Bruce offered.

"Bruce... stop. I was way worse off the Christmas after Sokovia. You should've seen me then. I was a mess, crying in the bathroom like a bitch. I was such a whiny twit back then. Maybe it's good that you only sent a- wait, how did you send a postcard if you were stuck as Hulk on Sakaar?"

Bruce scratched the back of his neck, nervously. "Uh, well, I knew that I, uh, didn't want to... to be an Avenger anymore. I mean, after Ultron I was gonna run, I knew that. So, I set up a program that printed up the card and sent it to you right before Christmas... to throw your search off."

"You mean, throw Nat's search off. She was looking for you more than anybody else. I can't believe your planning. That's kinda crazy."

Bruce settled back in his seat and looked across the sea of cars. "So... you're not gonna tell anyone you're pregnant with Loki's baby?"

Cassie shook her head. "No."

Bruce nodded, slightly. "You know, if we survive this and Loki and Thor are really gone-"

"They are." She interjected. She couldn't hold out hope that Ebony Maw had been lying. She couldn't deny that Thor and Loki were dead.

"Then, that kid is the rightful king of Jotunheim  _and_  Asgard."

Cassie scoffed. "Jotuns wouldn't accept a half-breed son of a runt and all of what's left of Asgard fit on the Grandmaster's party ship." She chuckled. "He's better off not knowing he's a prince." 

"What are you gonna do about, you know, if he's... gonna kill you, the baby?"

"I can't think that far ahead, Bruce. Definitely not what Clint did last time. Probably just..." She sighed, wishing she could just  _be_  at the compound already. "Cesarean. That'd be the easiest way to deal with it. If it's even really a thing to deal with. I mean, we're going on Heimdall and Loki's word that I'm pregnant. It hasn't been confirmed. I mean, with science."

"When we pass a pharmacy, you could always-"

"We don't have time for that."

Bruce gestured at the standstill traffic. "We've got plenty of time, Red."

Cassie took a deep breath and turned to Banner. "I don't wanna know. I mean... I think I know. I just... I  _have_  to focus on the Stones right now, Bruce. I have to..."

"Thanos is coming, I understand that. If he gets Vision's Stone, he'll destroy half the universe, but... I mean... What if you survive?"

"Then, I'll deal with it then. Right now... right now I have to prep myself for seeing Steve."

"What, uh, what did the video say? The one you sent to Steve." Bruce asked. 

"Should've stolen a motorcycle. We could be at the compound by now." She sighed, deeply, inching forward again. "I told him that I was a piece of shit who never deserved him. I admitted sleeping with Loki and didn't dance around the fact that I fucked him immediately after I got to Asgard. I begged forgiveness, while telling him I didn't deserve that consideration. I told him exactly the kind of shit person I am, so that he wouldn't glorify me once I died."

"Do you... think Steve's going to..."

"I don't know what Steve's gonna do. But whatever he chooses to do, I won't fight it. I deserve whatever repercussions are handed me... including being torn apart by a half frost giant kid that I specifically told Loki not to knock me up with."

"That's not okay." Bruce whispered. "I mean, I know you feel low. You think you're a bad person and you think you deserve to be treated like one, but... you can't go into a fight like this with a... a suicidal ideation."

Cassie bit her lip. "Sure."

"No, I mean... you can't be any help to Vision if you don't want to make it out of this fight alive."

"Oh, stuff it, Bruce. You've  _tried_  to kill yourself. I've only ever thought about it." She growled, quietly. "And this... I'm not thinking about killing myself, but I  _am_  considering death. Because that's what you do when you're facing... that's what you do when half the universe is about to be destroyed, you consider death. You think about your life and you consider your death because that's what 'life flashing before your eyes' is. It's thinking about everything you regret, every you wish you'd done differently, everything you-"

"Just stop. You haven't done anything wrong. You fucked Loki. So what? He messed with your head and made you depend on him, just like Clint did. You had to keep him happy to stay on Asgard and then you got pregnant on Sakaar because-"

"Because he made it happen! I didn't want it. I don't want this."

"Yes, you do!" Bruce exclaimed. He took a deep breath. "If you didn't want it, you'd have already decided to terminate it and you haven't done that. You want this kid."

"I'm not going to abort this kid because I have enough dead babies in my past. If there's a chance this kid could survive and be relatively happy here on Earth, without his father or... possibly me... then I will have him."

"And if you don't survive and Anthony does, who will take care of him? Not some foster family."

"If he ever makes it back to Earth, I'm certain Tony would have no problems providing for his namesake. Or maybe, you know, maybe Natasha. She's always wanted a kid and she'd make sure he didn't get grabbed by some Hydra or SHIELD or Weapon X program. She'd make sure he was never used the way we were, that he had a chance to be a kid."

There was silence in the car before Bruce sighed. "I think Nat would like that."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie slammed her hand on the biometric scanner by the door and pushed into the Compound as soon as the lock clicked open. "Rhodes?!"

"In here!" Rhodes called from the conference room/mechanic lab.

Banner followed Cassie to the conference room, where she pointed down a hallway. "Two doors down, on the left." Rhodes raised an eyebrow as Bruce rushed down the all. We've been stuck in evac traffic for 4 and a half hours. He's been bitching about a bathroom for half of that."

"Was that Banner?" Rhodes asked, hugging her.

"Yeah."

"Where'd you find him?"

Cassie walked into the kitchen and grabbed a box of Cheez-its, munching on a few as she walked back into the conference area. "Trash planet called Sakaar. His Quinjet got sucked into a wormhole and got spit out on Sakaar. he ended up as Hulk for two years, destroying all challengers in gladiatorial combat. So, expect him to be a little off."

"How'd you find him from Asgard?"

"There  _is_  no Asgard." She tossed a handful of crackers in her mouth and perched on the back of one of the chairs from the conference table. "We had to blow it up to stop the goddess of death from taking over the universe. Loaded up all the Asgardians she hadn't killed on a ship, headed for Earth, but we didn't make it very far before we got attacked by Thanos."

"Thanos?"

"Big purple dude, wants to collect all of the Infinity Stones so that he can destroy half of the population of the universe. He's obsessed with balance, I guess."

"And the ship over Manhattan? That was-"

"Two of Thanos' four children. They were here to retrieve the Time Stone from Doctor Stephen Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts. Unfortunately, they got it. Well, they got  _him_ , but he was wearing the thing. Tony managed to get on the ship, though, so maybe all's not lost."

"The kid, too." Rhodes said, grabbing a handful of crackers from the box.

"What kid?" Bruce asked, walking in.

"The spider kid. Peter."

"I didn't even  _see_  Peter. Wha- he's on that ship?" Cassie asked, dropping the box of Cheez-its to rest between her feet.

"Yeah. He was helping Tony with Doctor Strange. I... I didn't think to ask what happened to him after Tony went into the ship."

Cassie swallowed hard. "Oh, my God. He's only sixteen. He has no business in  _space_!"

"He's with Tony. Tony'll keep him-" Bruce started.

"Tony doesn't know what's out there! Tony didn't watch Asgard's greatest warriors torn apart by Thanos and his children and, really, neither did you, Bruce! Hulk saw it and now he's scared to come out!"

There was silence for a moment, then a chime sound which prompted Bruce to pull out the flip phone. "They're almost here. Why don't we go into the med lab while we wait for them?" Bruce suggested, pointing toward the lab.

"But-"

"Let me do some scans."

"I've got an incoming call from Secretary Thaddeus Ross. He's calling from the White House War Room." FRIDAY interjected.

"I should probably take this. The Security Council'll get nuke happy if they don't get some answers out of me." Rhodey said.

"Yeah, and I don't want to think about what Ross will say if he sees me. Can we..." Bruce asked. Cassie sighed and followed Bruce to the lab, hopping up on a table as he grabbed a scanner. "You need to calm down." Bruce ordered.

"If you're about to tell me that stress is bad for the baby, I'm gonna punch you in your stupid face."

"We need you at a hundred percent, Cassie. We need you here on Earth, not out in space with Tony and the kid, not with the Doctor, and not back with Thor and Loki. We need you on Earth, keeping Vision out of Thanos' hands. And if you needed more incentive to save the universe; here." He handed her the tablet to show her the scan of her body. "There's little Anthony Lokison. Now, I'm no expert but he doesn't look giant to me. Loki was small for a Jotun, right? So maybe the kid will be, too, and I mean, he did get half of his genes from you and you're, you know, five foot nothing."

"Five foot two, thank you." She said, staring at the little dot on the tablet screen. If she hadn't known she was looking at a fetus, she would have thought a speck of dust had settled on the tablet.

"FRIDAY, how far along would you say Cassie's pregnancy is?"

"Based upon the size of the fetus on the scan, I would put her pregnancy at 4 weeks, Dr. Banner."

"That's two weeks since conception. That sound right?"

Cassie mind flashed back to the one time Loki would have been able to ignore the pullout without her noticing; the night of the party where she met Valkyrie. When she'd been half out of her mind with guilt and depression. When she hadn't cared what Loki did, as long as it felt good. That  _couldn't_ have been just two weeks ago, could it?

"More like three." She answered aloud.

"Great, so it's small even by human standards. It's  _not_  gonna kill you. This baby  _needs_ you to survive this and help us save Vision." Bruce urged, taking her hands in his.

Cassie swallowed then nodded. "Fine. I'll try to survive, but we still aren't talking to the team about my condition. You got that, FRIDAY? No one knows about this scan 'til I say."

"What scan is that, Miss Campbell?" FRIDAY asked.

"Good girl. How's Rhodey's conversation with the National Security Council going?"

"Colonel Rhodes seems stressed and I predict it's about to get worse. A Quinjet just landed under Captain Rogers' authorization codes."

Her throat went dry, knowing she was about to see Steve. Bruce looked nervous, too, smoothing his hair down and straightening his clothes. "You look fine." Cassie whispered.

"I look like we were in a fight and then I sat in a rust bucket for 5 hours."

Cassie smiled and stepped up to watch Rhodes talking to Ross. "Still no word from Vision?" Ross asked.

"Satellites lost him somewhere over Edinburgh."

"Yeah, on a  _stolen_  Quinjet with four of the world's most wanted criminals."

"You know, they're only criminals because you've chosen to call them that, right, sir?"

"My God, Rhodes, your talent for horseshit rivals my own."

"If it weren't for those Accords, Vision would have been right here."

"I remember your signature on those papers, Colonel."

"That's right... and I'm pretty sure I paid for that."

"You have second thoughts?" Ross asked.

"Not anymore." Rhodes responded as the sound of boots started coming down the hallway.

"Mr. Secretary." Steve's voice made Cassie close her eyes.

"You got some nerve, heh, I'll give you that."

"You could use some of that right now." Natasha said.

"The world's on fire and you think all's forgiven?" Ross asked.

"I'm not looking for forgiveness... and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender so we're here to fight, and if you wanna stand in our way we'll fight you, too." Steve said.

"Arrest them." Ross ordered.

"All over it." Rhodey answered and there was a sound of a Hologram dissipating. "That's a court martial. It's great to see you, Cap." Cassie and Bruce both looked around the corner to see the group in the lab.

"You, too, Rhodey."

"Hey. Well, you guys really look like crap. Must've been a rough couple years."

"Yeah, well, the hotels weren't exactly five star." Sam said.

"Well, I think you look great." Bruce said, stepping around Cassie and focusing in on Natasha. "Uh, yeah, uh, I'm back."

"Hi, Bruce." Natasha said after a beat. 

"Nat."

There was another beat after he responded, followed by Sam saying, "This is awkward. Oh... and it gets worse." as Cassie stepped out behind Bruce.

Steve's blue eyes fell on Cassie and he immediately looked away. Cassie looked down and swallowed. That was pretty much all the confirmation she needed that Steve had watched her message. 

"Let's go ahead and shoot the awkward elephant in the room." Natasha stepped forward. "I'm sorry Coulson and I fucked with your head for Clint."

"That's not the awkward elephant, Nat." Sam responded. 

"We don't need to-" Cassie started, but Steve sighed and turned away.

"Let's get this over with." She followed him to an office and waited for him to turn to her. "I'm working with Natasha so I'm obviously not above forgivene-"

"I don't want it." She interrupted. "I don't want forgiveness, Steve. I don't deserve it and I don't want it." His eyes shot to her face. "I can give you all sorts of excuses, but not a single one of them would change the fact that I betrayed you."

"I want to hear them." Steve said, quietly yet intently.

"What?"

"Your excuses. Your reasons. I want to hear them." 

She closed her eyes and searched for the words. "I got scared. I think I got scared. Every time I... I think things are good, every time I get comfortable relying on or wanting to be with a man, it breaks me. I got scared and I did the ruinous thing that felt good at the time."

"With  _Loki_?" Steve bit out.

"Loki's easy. Loki always wants me..." She bit her lip as she corrected herself. "... _wanted_  me, because I was made for him."

"What's that mean?"

She cleared her throat. "Loki and Thor's mother, Frigga, she's the one who made me, not Hydra." Cassie sighed. "There's a reason why Strucker failed four-hundred and fifty-one times before suddenly succeeding, because they didn't. Frigga just made it seem like they'd created me when she did."

"She created you... for Loki?" She nodded. "For him to torture? For him to carve to pieces? For him to stalk and manipulate?"

"For him to marry. To calm his desire to torture and manipulate people." She bit her lip and sighed. "But that's not an excuse. I mean, it's... it's why he always felt like home even when I was terrified of him, but that's not- it doesn't  _excuse_  what I did. I could have stopped myself and I didn't... because I got scared... like I always do." 

"You got scared? That's what you're going with?" Steve asked, quietly. 

"Steve, I... Phil was all I had for years. I put my everything into him and when I lost him, I lost everything. I guess when I feel myself putting so much into someone else, I just... I run. I ruin it. I-"

"That's a real damn stupid way to go through life." Cassie nodded. Steve towered over her in his dark uniform. "I'm not going to forget this, Cassie. And I  _can't_  forgive you. You threw away something I don't easily give. We're gonna fight this Thanos together and then, I don't want to see you again. Understand?"

Cassie nodded, again. "Yeah. I understand." She opened the office door and headed for the conference room. "We might get lucky and I'll die in the battle. Go out like a true Asgardian." She said, bitterly. 

Steve grabbed her wrist to stop her. "I don't want you dead, Cass. Just can't have you breaking my heart again, so you have to keep your distance."

"Well, then, you need to let me go." She said, looking at her wrist. His fingers lingered on her wrist long enough for her heartbeat to pulse through his fingers several times before he let go and pushed past her into the conference room. 

Cassie stood by the lab, away from the group, just barely in the room. She was almost hiding and it bugged her that she was, but she couldn't get herself to stand forth and be more present. The fact that she lost everything... Asgard, Thor, Loki, Tony, Steve... she literally only had the baby and the universe left to give a fuck about. 

"So, we gotta assume they're coming back, right?" Rhodes interrupted her thoughts.

"And they can clearly find us." Wanda said, worriedly.

"We need all hands on deck. Where's Clint?" Bruce asked.

"He's kinda under house arrest." Natasha said, looking at Cassie who bit her lip. "And Scott's actually on house arrest. After the whole Accord situation, he took a deal because it was too hard on his family."

"Who's Scott?" Bruce asked.

"Ant-Man." Steve answered.

"There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man?" Bruce asked, exasperated. "Okay, look, Thanos has the biggest army in the universe and he is not gonna stop until he... he gets... Vision's Stone."

"Well, then, we have to protect it." Natasha said.

"No, we have to destroy it." Vision said, causing the entire group to turn to him. "I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head, about its... nature, but also its composition." He turned his attention to Wanda, stepping toward her. "I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something very similar to its own signature perhaps... its molecular integrity could fail."

"Yeah, and  _you_  with it." Wanda said, looking up into her lover's face. "We're not having this conversation."

"Eliminating the Stone is the only way to be certain Thanos can't get it."

"That's too high a price."

"Only you have the power to pay it." Vision said softly, reaching up to cradle her head between his hands. "Thanos threatens half the universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him."

"But it should." Steve said. "We don't trade lives, Vision."

"Captain, seventy years ago you laid down your life to save how many millions of people. Tell me, why is this any different?" Vision asked.

"Because...  _you_  might have a choice." Bruce stepped up. "Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. JARVIS, Ultron, Tony, me, the Stone, all of them mixed together. All of them learning from one another." 

"You're saying Vision isn't just the Stone?" Wanda asked, hopefully.

"I'm saying that if we take out the Stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left, perhaps the best parts."

"Can we do that?" Natasha asked.

"Not me. Not here." Bruce answered.

"Well, you better find someone and somewhere fast." Rhodes said. "Ross isn't just gonna let you guys have your old rooms back."

"I know somewhere." Steve and Cassie said, simultaneously. Cassie immediately looked away. "Wakanda has state-of-the-art tech. T'challa's sister, Shuri, is a genius. She might be able to do this." Steve finished. 

"All right. Grab what you can and get to the jet." Natasha ordered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie kept her eyes on her feet as they took off heading for Wakanda in their Quinjet. Nat was sitting by Bruce, trying to act like she didn't want to question him about his whereabouts. Wanda had Vision's head in her lap and Rhodes stood over Sam's shoulder while he flew the craft. Steve was staring at her. She could feel it. His face was the same tired sadness it had been wince he walked into the Compound, though, so she couldn't guess what he was thinking.

Well, she could guess. She could guess he was calling her every foul name his brain could call forth, insults spanning decades. He might be wishing her violence in his mind, lamenting the time, effort and emotions he put into saving her from Clint and Coulson. He might be kicking himself for not noticing in Africa, or before, that she was a no-good, two-bit whore.

Or he might just be worried about Vision and the fate of the universe.

Cassie rolled her eyes at her vanity. Steve wasn't scowling because of her. He had more important things to scowl about. Bruce stood and walked over to her. "So, I was fiddling back at the Compound."

"I saw." She said, quietly.

"Had to do something while you guys ransacked the armory. Anyway, that cell phone that was in your bag? I fixed it. FRIDAY cut out a new screen, I placed it and ran a diagnostic. It's good." Bruce reached into his jacket and handed the phone to her.

"Thanks, but everyone I'd call... they're either dead or in space or... right here."

"Well, just hold onto it. A little something normal to ground you in the present."

"Normal." She scoffed. "My 'normal' is destruction and chaos. My normal is devastation. Don't want my normal." She said, but she took the phone and laid it in her lap. Her eyes kept going back to the phone, until she picked it up and turned it on.

She called into her voicemail, skipping each message she'd listened to in Norway, except the one she didn't finish.

" ** _So, this is day 5 of you being on Asgard and I know that you aren't going to hear this until you get back, but... I wanted to let you know that I'm... I'm thinking of you and I'm calling Tony every day to make certain that you're still safe and he says you've been calling him every day, too, and I can't wait until you get back here. I want us to... there's so much I want to say to you and I'm afraid that maybe I'm imagining this as something bigger than it really is, but... I sound like an idiot, but I think I might love you, Cassie. When I woke up in the 21st century, I thought I'd never find someone who really understood me, but here you are. Strong, resilient, clever and so smart. I never thought I'd feel this way after losing my shot with Peggy. You're a dream. I miss you. Get your research done and come home so I can tell you to your face."_**

_*Why are you doing this to yourself? Why listen to these messages when you know he doesn't feel that way, anymore?*_ She asked herself as the voice on the other end of the call asked if she wanted to save the message or delete it. She chose to save it and moved to the last message.  _*I deserve to know what I've lost, what I threw away for a dead man.*_

" _ **So, I was thinking, when you get back from Asgard, you and I should take a vacation. Just the two of us. There's this beach in Thailand, in a province called Krabi. I didn't have much time to enjoy it when we were chasing Hydra goons through it, but it was beautiful. Out of the way, a perfect spot to just... enjoy each other's company. I'd love that. I'd love to do that with you. When you hear this... I hope you're standing right in front of me when you hear this so we can just pack up the jet and go. I miss you.**_ "

Cassie bit her lip and hit the button to save the message. She looked up in time to catch Steve staring at her. He didn't look away, holding her eyes until he turned away to talk to Sam. 


End file.
